Liliana Gajic, Specialist Centre Manager

Role: Specialist Centre Manager — a non-clinical operational role

Registration: Not applicable. Practice and centre management is not a registered health profession. The Dental Board of Australia does not register managers or administrative staff, and no AHPRA registration attaches to this role.

The practice publishes no further biographical detail for this position. The full team list is on the our team page, and the clinicians' registrations are set out on the dentists and registered specialists page.

A management title is not a clinical qualification. Only a registered practitioner may diagnose, recommend treatment or explain clinical risk. A manager can discuss appointments, referrals, records, fees and logistics; anything clinical must come from the practitioner who will do the work.

What managing a specialist centre involves

A specialist dental centre is operationally different from a general practice, because most of what happens there arrives by referral and involves more than one practitioner.

The role covers:

• Referral intake and triage — receiving referrals from general dentists, ensuring the referral letter, radiographs and records arrive with the patient, and routing urgent cases appropriately
• Coordinating across specialties — a single case may involve a periodontist, an oral surgeon, an orthodontist and a prosthodontist in sequence, and the sequence matters clinically. Complex dental cases: what happens when multiple specialists need to collaborate describes how that is run.
• Scheduling around longer, more complex appointments, and around surgical sessions
• Records and imaging, including making sure CBCT scans and models move with the case rather than being repeated — how safe are dental x-rays explains why that matters, and the technology page describes the equipment
• Communication back to the referring dentist, which is a professional obligation and not a courtesy
• Theatre and sedation logistics, where treatment happens under sedation or general anaesthetic
• Quotes and financial coordination for multi-stage treatment — see understanding your treatment and the price guide

How specialist referral actually works in Australian dentistry

Worth setting out, because it differs from medicine and people assume otherwise. Why would I need to see a dental specialist? is the patient-facing version.

• You do not legally need a referral to see a dental specialist. You can book directly. In practice a referral is still worth having, because it brings the diagnosis, the radiographs and the reason for referral with you — and avoids repeating imaging.
• There is no Medicare rebate attached to a dental referral the way there is in medicine. A referral does not reduce the cost.
• A referral is not a transfer of care. Your general dentist normally remains responsible for your ongoing care, and the specialist reports back and returns you.
• You can ask to be referred, and you can ask to be referred to a particular practitioner. You can also decline a referral and ask what happens if the work is done in general practice instead — which is a fair question with a real answer. Orthodontic treatment: general dentist vs specialist orthodontist? and endodontist vs dentist for root canal work through two of the commonest versions of it, and a second opinion is always available.
• Check the specialist register. ‘Specialist’ is a protected term, and the AHPRA register names the specialty. Titles like ‘cosmetic dentist’, ‘implant surgeon’, ‘implantologist’ and ‘sleep dentist’ are not specialties. Finding a dentist online in Australia covers how to check a listing before you book. Where cosmetic work is done by a registered specialist, the practice sets that out under cosmetic dentistry under specialist care.

Where to check, in the Board's own words

The Dental Board of Australia states that "Ahpra publishes an online register of all dental practitioners that provides the profession and the public with up-to-date information about a dental practitioner's registration status", and — the part that matters here — that the register "also includes details of the specialty or specialties for dentists who hold specialist registration".

So the question ‘are you a registered specialist in this field?’ has a free, public, one-minute answer, and it is the only answer that settles it. Conditions and undertakings appear there too.

The thirteen recognised dental specialties

Every one of these requires three or more years of full-time postgraduate university training after a dental degree and general practice experience, followed by specialist registration with the Dental Board. The titles are protected: using one without specialist registration is an offence under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law.

The Dental Board's own formulation is that "there are 13 dental specialties in Australia which are approved by the Australian Health Workforce Ministerial Council". They are:

• Dento-maxillofacial radiology
• Endodontics — root canal treatment
• Forensic odontology
• Oral and maxillofacial surgery — what does it involve?
• Oral medicine
• Oral and maxillofacial pathology
• Oral surgery
• Orthodontics — tooth and jaw alignment
• Paediatric dentistry — should your child see one?
• Periodontics — gums and supporting bone
• Prosthodontics — restoring and replacing teeth, including implant restorations
• Public health dentistry (community dentistry)
• Special needs dentistry

Special needs dentistry deserves a note: it exists for adults with disability, medical complexity or conditions that make ordinary dental care difficult, and demand substantially exceeds the number of specialists. Oral health care for children with special needs covers the paediatric side of the same problem.

The requirement people leave out

A specialist qualification on its own is not enough. The Board's Specialist registration standard (in effect 1 July 2010) requires applicants to have "completed a minimum of two years general dental practice (this requirement may be achieved by experience outside Australia, subject to assessment and approval by the Board)", and to "meet all other requirements for general registration as a dentist". The Board also states that "all dentists who wish to apply for specialist registration must have general registration and be on the Register of practitioners under the division of dentists".

In plain terms: every registered dental specialist is also a registered dentist, and spent at least two years in general practice first. The published list of specialties, titles and definitions itself dates from 1 October 2017.

There is one historical exception the Board records: "there are a small number of specialists who, because of the previous legislative framework that existed in one jurisdiction prior to the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme, are registered only on the Board's Specialists Register", and those practitioners "must restrict the scope of their practice to the specialty or field of specialist practice in which they hold registration and to their education, training and current competence".

Oral and maxillofacial surgery is the unusual one. The Board notes it is "a specialty recognised by both the Dental Board of Australia and the Medical Board of Australia", and that an applicant "must hold qualifications in both medicine and dentistry" — an overseas-qualified applicant must first be assessed by the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons. It is the longest training pathway in the list by a wide margin.

The list is not universal — a useful sanity check

Specialties are recognised jurisdiction by jurisdiction, which is worth knowing if a practitioner trained across the Tasman. The Dental Board and the Dental Council (New Zealand) "have 11 specialties in common". The two recognised "by the Board but not by the Council" are dento-maxillofacial radiology and forensic odontology; the one recognised "by the Council but not by the Board" is restorative dentistry.

So ‘specialist in restorative dentistry’ is a real New Zealand title and not an Australian one — an example of why the register, rather than a qualification's name, is the thing to check. Under the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Act a New Zealand-registered specialist holding a current annual practising certificate is entitled to Australian registration in the equivalent occupation, and the Board "may impose conditions on your registration if this is required to make your occupation equivalent to an Australian occupation" — those conditions appear on the public register.

Whichever route a practitioner took, the Board's Scope of practice registration standard (in effect 1 July 2020) applies to all of them, requiring "dental practitioners to practise within the scope of their education, training, and competence at all times".

What to bring to a specialist appointment

• The referral letter, if you have one
• Recent radiographs or a CBCT scan, or the details of where they were taken. This genuinely matters — it avoids repeating imaging and repeating the radiation exposure.
• A current medication list, including anything started recently. Anticoagulants and antiresorptive medications for osteoporosis are particularly important, including if taken years ago.
• Your medical history, including conditions the dental team may not know about
• Your questions, written down — 5 questions you've always wanted to ask your dentist is a reasonable starting list
• Someone with you, if the appointment involves a decision you would rather not make alone

What to ask

• ‘Are you a registered specialist in this field, and can I check?’ — always reasonable
• ‘What is the diagnosis, and how confident is it?’
• ‘What are the alternatives, including the more conservative one and doing nothing?’
• ‘What does the whole plan cost, in writing, with item numbers?’
• ‘Who does which part, and in what order?’
• ‘What happens if this does not work?’

For implants specifically, who should I see for dental and teeth implants? answers the first of those directly.

Where to direct what

• Clinical questions — the treating specialist
• Referrals, records, imaging, scheduling — centre management and reception, via the contact page
• Costs and staging — a treatment coordinator
• Unresolved complaints — practice management, then the Health Complaints Commissioner in Victoria, or AHPRA for practitioner conduct

Related pages: Specialist Care, Our Team, Complex Dentistry, Understanding your treatment, Everything under one roof.

Common questions

Can the specialist centre manager tell me which treatment is best?

Liliana's profile describes an operational role: organising referrals, appointments, records and the practical parts of a multi-stage plan. A treatment recommendation needs to come from the clinician assessing your case.

If you are uncertain why a particular specialist or procedure has been proposed, ask the centre to arrange an explanation from the referring or treating practitioner. The manager can help the conversation happen and make sure the paperwork reaches the right person; the clinical reasoning should remain with the clinician.

I am seeing several specialists. How do I keep track of the sequence?

Ask for a written outline identifying who is coordinating the clinical plan, who is carrying out each stage and which appointments depend on an earlier assessment or result. Keep the outline with your quotes and appointment information.

If you need to move an appointment, tell the centre which stage it belongs to and ask whether the treating team needs to review the sequence. Administrative coordination helps the plan run smoothly, but any change that affects treatment needs the relevant clinician's input. See complex dental cases.

How can I check that my referral and previous images have arrived?

Contact the centre before the consultation and ask it to confirm the referring practice's name, the records received and anything still outstanding. If you have been given a referral letter or details of where images are held, have those available when you enquire.

Receiving an old image does not by itself establish that it answers the current clinical question. The specialist decides what information is sufficient. The useful administrative check is that existing information reaches them in time to make that decision.

What should I do if the written quote and the appointment plan do not seem to match?

Point out the specific stage, procedure or clinician that appears to be missing and ask for the documents to be reconciled before you rely on the total. A multi-stage plan can involve separate fees, so ask who bills each part and what is included or excluded.

The centre can clarify the paperwork and obtain an updated explanation. If the difference reflects a changed treatment recommendation, ask the clinician to explain that change as well. Understanding your treatment and the price guide provide background for that conversation.

Practical details

Registration and specialty of treating clinicians can be verified free on the AHPRA public register at ahpra.gov.au, or by calling 1300 419 495.

Smile Solutions, Level 1, 220 Collins Street, Manchester Unity Building, Melbourne VIC 3000. Phone 13 13 96, or theteam@smilesolutions.com.au. Monday–Friday 8.00am–6.00pm, Saturday 8.30am–1.30pm, Sunday by appointment.

This page records a staff role as published by the practice. General information only — it is not clinical advice. The list of recognised specialties is set by the Dental Board of Australia and may change; confirm current details with the Board.

Smile Solutions trades under ABN 28 193 514 103.